Biden weighs pick for agriculture chief
The decision is critical this year as USDA provides aid and oversees food production amid the pandemic.
WASHINGTON » One leading candidate for agriculture secretary hails from Cleveland, has the backing of progressives and has worked for years to boost food stamp programs. Another is a former senator from farm- state North Dakota who has championed production agriculture and boasts of a voting record squarely in the middle.
Three other possible selections have similarly varied backgrounds — one helped write and implement federal regulations for organic foods, another is California’s agriculture secretary and represented wine grape growers, and a third has spent his career ensuring protections for farm workers.
President- elect Joe Biden’s choices for secretary of agriculture are as diverse as the department of 100,000 employees who she or he would represent — and is especially critical this year as USDA provides extra aid for the hungry and oversees food production amid the pandemic.
For Biden, the emerging choice between Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and several other potential candidates seems like another test of his vision for the Democratic Party — a contest between urban and rural and liberals and moderates, with the pick potentially placing an added emphasis on anti- hunger programs, farm subsidies or worker protections.
Besides Fudge and Heitkamp, other candidates mentioned for the post — and who have been pushed by some advocacy groups — are Kathleen Merrigan, deputy agriculture secretary under President Barack Obama and one of the architects of federal organic rules; Karen Ross, California’s agriculture secretary, former USDA chief of staff and a former longtime president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers; and Arturo Rodriguez, the former president of the United Farm Workers.
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who served as Obama’s agriculture secretary for eight years, is also being considered.
“This isn’t like the secretary of defense where you’re a hawk or a dove,” says Eric Kessler, a Democrat who has long worked around agriculture policy and has been holding private calls with other influencers to speak with some of the possible candidates. “The Department of Agriculture is a massive enterprise that is led by a manager who is dependent on a diverse team of people.”
And as Biden has said he wants his Cabinet to reflect the country’s diversity, Kessler says the decisions on USDA and other agencies will “be driven by lots of factors, not just the individual’s specific resume.”
The agriculture post has been closely watched as all but two agriculture secretaries in the last 120 years have been white men. If chosen, Fudge would be the first Black woman to lead a department that has for years reckoned with a history of discriminating against both Black people and women.
Under Obama, the department paid out more than a billion dollars in a settlement with Black farmers and a smaller amount to female farmers, along with Hispanics and Native Americans who had repeatedly been denied farm loans over many decades.
Fudge enjoys the strong backing of South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat who gave Biden a key nod of support in the primaries.
The agriculture post has been closely watched as all but two agriculture secretaries in the last 120 years have been white men.